The Serbian Latin alphabet is one of the writing systems used to write the Serbian language. It consists of 30 letters, which are similar to the Latin script used for English and many other languages. Here’s a brief overview of the Serbian Latin alphabet:
A B C Č Ć D Dž Đ E F G H I J K L Lj M N Nj O P R S Š T U V Z Ž
a b c č ć d dž đ e f g h i j k l lj m n nj o p r s š t u v z ž
Latin alphabet, also known as abeceda, is the form of the Latin script (latinica) used for writing Serbo-Croatian and all of its standard varieties: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian.
Digraphs ⟨dž⟩, ⟨lj⟩ and ⟨nj⟩ are considered to be single letters.
There are 22 letters that are the same as in English, and there are 8 letters unique for the Serbian writing system: Č, Ć, Dž, Đ, Nj, Š, Ž.
The four English letter we don’t have in the Serbian alphabet are: X, Y, W, Q.
Pronunciation
There is a rule in Serbian that goes:
Write as you say, read as it is written.
Serbian (and the other three standard varietes of our language) is 100% phonetic. One letter equals one sound. There are no silent letters. There are no double letters. One letter always has the same sound. No exceptions.
For example, letter “k” always has the sound like in key or kangaroo. The letter “c” can never sound like that.
Take a look at the pronunciation of our letters:
Č, č church / čovek – man (harder)
Ć, ć gotcha / ćao – hi (softer)
Ž, ž pleasure / žena – woman
Dž, dž junk / džem – jam (harder)
Đ, đ juice / đak – pupil (softer)
Š, š shoes / šta – what
Nj, nj onion, piñata / konj – horse
Lj, lj million, Ljubljana / ljubav – love
The “c” letter has the /ts/ sound, like in gigahertz and Fitzgerald.
“A” is just /a/, like in bun, honey, or mushroom.
“E” is just /e/, like cat, pet, met.
“I” is /i/, like sit, meet, pit.
“O” is /o/, like ball, mop, shop.
“U” is /u/, like shoot, put, suit.
The letters we don’t have (X, Y, Q, W) we also have to pronounce somehow.
X – iks
Y – ipsilon
Q – ku
W – duplo ve [literally “double V”]